


all these thoughts that we transpose

by VolxdoSioda



Series: Tea Time [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Afternoon Tea challenge, Alpha Gladiolus, Alpha Ignis, Beta Prompto, Gen, Human Noctis, Werewolf AU, older! wolf bros, younger!Noctis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 14:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Noctis watches the harvest moon rise during the Infernian Hours, and listens to the howls in the distance coming closer.





	all these thoughts that we transpose

The moon is the biggest Noctis has ever seen it. Large enough to almost completely envelope a nearby tree in its unearthly yellow glow. Harvest moons aren't normally so large, but this is a harvest moon during the Infernian Hours, so named because all fire-born monsters seem to gain a boost in strength. It won't last; come tomorrow morning, it will seem like a dream at most. 

But here, now, Noctis watches the moon rise, and listens to the howls in the distance as they get closer. 

It occurs to him, not for the first time, that nobody knows he's out here. Nobody expects the crown Prince to be out wandering the furthest fields during the Infernian Hours, away from all the protections afforded to his gilded cage. Even his dad doesn't know. He should be terrified, but instead, he's the calmest he's felt in a long time.

Over the hill, another howl. Deep, demanding. Gladio's on the prowl tonight, and if what Noctis is hearing is any indication, Ignis is with him. Though he knows Gladio recognizes his scent enough not to savage him if they come across him so long as he stays out of Gladio's direct line of territory, it still sends a shiver down his spine to hear the powerful werewolf calling out into the night.

There's a shuffle in the darkness, and when Noctis looks away from the moon he finds the alpha beast standing not five feet away, watching him almost suspiciously. He smiles, and lifts a hand to wave. "Good evening, alpha Gladiolus. Alpha Ignis. Good tidings and easy hunts to you and yours."

Gladio relaxes a little at that, making a pleased little 'rrgh' in the back of his throat. He casually walks forward, and Noctis turns his gaze back towards the moon. A cold nose nudges his shoulder in a silent demand. Noctis glances over.

"Me?" he asks, already knowing what Gladio can't ask, but wants to know. "I'm just not sleepy, that's all. Thought I'd take a walk."

Ignis sneezes, shaking his mane as he does it.  _On the longest night in the autumn cycle, where the fire-born are at their peak?_

Noctis rubs the back of his neck. "Never said I was smart."

Gladio gives him a pointed  _look,_ and then seizes Noctis' hoodie with his teeth and begins to tug. Noctis resists the pull, but fighting back against an easily 800 pound werewolf is  _hard._

"I'm fine, Gladio, honest--"

Gladio gives a no-nonsense  _growl_ at that, glaring at him as much as he can in this form. Ignis follows his fellow alpha's lead, getting behind Noctis and gently nipping at his legs to keep him moving. They're herding him, effectively, one pulling, the other pushing. And no matter how Noctis swears up and down  _he's fine,_  they ignore him.

Eventually, he gives up. There's no budging when Gladio is being like this, determined to keep the scrawny human boy out of trouble. Not for the first time, he wonders what he constitutes in their head. A problem? A pain? What would Gladio call him, if he had his human form again? What would Ignis?

He expects them to push him out of the outer boundaries of Gladio's territory altogether, and leave him to wander back home. Instead, he finds himself on a stony path, heading up into a cultivated garden on a steep hill. It takes a single whiff for Noctis to know where they're leading him, and for his throat to close up and his heart to beat triplicate.

Well, at least that answers the question of what they would call him, given they're leading him to their  _den_ of all places.

"Um," he squeaks, and he can practically hear both of their eyes roll. Gladio gives an especially sharp tug, and Ignis pushes harder, and he's all but thrown against the door. A second later it opens, and Noctis squeaks again as he falls at the feet of a young blond.

"Oh!" He steps back, peering down at Noctis, who stares right back up at him while Gladio and Ignis let themselves in. 

"Uh, hi?" Noctis offers by way of an apology.

Then the blond smiles, slow and welcoming. "So,  _you're_ the one they were making so much fuss over."

"Huh?"

The blond tilts his head to indicate the outside. "Out there. Gladio smelled you, and Ignis was worried. You're really as scrawny as they said you were." He leans down, picking Noctis up by his hoodie and setting him back on his feet with one hand. And then, before Noctis even has a chance to breath, he sticks his nose against the back of Noctis' neck and inhales. 

Noctis jumps about a foot in the air, just like he did when Gladio did it that first time, and Ignis shortly thereafter. But he holds still past the initial shock, aware that this person is pack to Gladio, and evidently already knows about him. 

"I'm Prompto," the blond says, after circling him a couple times following the scenting. "You're Noctis, right?"

"Uh yeah. Nice to meet you. Sorry for the intrusion. I can go--"

"You're not going anywhere, Princess," a gruff voice says, and Noctis swings around to come face-to-chest with Gladio. He tilts his head back, and finds the alpha giving him the same exasperated look he had earlier. "The daemons are out in full force tonight. You'd be suicidal to go out there."

"Which brings us back to our first question - why  _were_ you out there?" Ignis demands. Without his glasses and his hair coiffed in the 'presentable human' image, he seems even more wild than Gladio in this moment. 

Noctis shrugs. "Told you, I just couldn't sleep."

"You don't have Blood ancestry in you anywhere, do you?" Prompto asks, gently reaching out to pet Noctis' head. "A lot of the lesser Bloods don't like sleeping on full moons. Says it makes them itchy."

"No, we're human. Magically human, but human." He scratches at his nose. "Sleep and I aren't on familiar terms. And the moon was pretty, so I figured a walk."

Gladio slides a look over to Ignis, one of those silent communications going on that Noctis politely pretends isn't happening, because it's not his business. He isn't pack - he's just the idiot human bumbling around that Gladio apparently feels the need to see to safety for reasons unknown.

"You'll stay the night," he says, and there's a silent  _no arguments_ in his voice. "In the morning, we'll walk you back. Don't do this again, Noctis."

A fission of irritation wells up in Noctis' chest not for the first time. "I can take care of myself."

"Evidently not," Gladio says lightly, "Given how many times you've been out after dark. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were suicidal."

It's a challenge; gauntlet thrown, Gladio stepping up behind it to weigh him. Except Noctis isn't some fainting damsel, and he's never been impressed by shit like this.

"Or maybe," he retorts in the same tone, "I felt like picking fights with shit that doesn't  _coddle_ me."

Ignis' eyebrow raises up, and Gladio bares his teeth in a wolfish grin. 

"Picking fights when you don't know what's out there? That's suicide, Princess."

"Only if I get killed. And I don't have plans for that." He tucks hands back in his hoodie pockets. "Try being surrounded by an entire territory full of people who think you're delicate and weak and too idiotic to keep yourself alive. Then come talk to me about suicide."

"A gilded cage," Ignis mutters. Prompto makes a weird little whine in the back of his throat, shuffling in place like he wants to do something. Gladio just watches him settle into the furthest corner of the cabin - the corner closest to the door.

"I'll be out of your hair in the morning," Noctis says, and turns his gaze back to the outside world. "Just say when."

Gladio says nothing however, eventually wandering to the back of the cabin to prepare dinner. Ignis sits with Prompto before the fire, their voices a soft murmur against the backdrop of crackling flames. Noctis breathes in the scent of the cabin, and tells himself not for the last time  _don't get attached, this isn't your world._

In the morning, he rises before anyone else - Gladio and Ignis and Prompto all piled into bed at some point - and silently slips out into the cold morning air, murmuring a snatchet of spell to turn him into a bird before flying back to his gilded cage in Insomnia.


End file.
